Let there be Truth
by Artisterie
Summary: Chloe lets her doubts get the better of her as she employs her detective skills to find more about the supposed paranormal nature of the world.
1. Prologue

**N/A: Hey! English isn't my first language, so feel free to highlight any kind of typo in your review, if you feel like it. I will edit them out once they are reported. This is my first attempt at writing Fanfiction (not at writing), so I'm open to pointers as well.**

 **Since there isn't much of a canon for this yet, I'm taking ample liberties. This is the prologue, but won't be the actual focus of the fanfiction. I'm just setting this up as I want to continue this scene as an entry in every chapter. Each chapter will start with this conversation, and I'll try to make it have some insight into the events of the actual story.**

 **Anyway, I hope that this doesn't bother you to death and I'll get some support in order to go forward and have some more action-oriented scenes.**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Let there be Truth - Prologue**

"Reverend Egbert?" Chloe had been asking repeatedly as soon as a man had approached the door of his office. This time, however, the big fellow with a lush, black beard nodded with a smile bright enough to light the dim corridor of the modern abbey.

"Detective Decker, I assume?" He tucked his briefcase under his arm and extended a large, powerful hand which she shook without hesitation.

"Yes, I would like to talk to you about…"

"I know, Detective," he interrupted, although he seemed sorry he had to. "Please, come into my office. My field of study is seldom one my colleagues want to hear about."

"Of course, Sir," Chloe stepped in front of him after he opened the door for her. "I'm sorry. This has been troubling me for quite some time."

The reverend quietly walked to his desk and invited her to sit with a simple gesture. "It's a rather interesting subject, but do not let your fears run wild. May I ask which denomination you pertain to?" He gave another bright smile. "I don't mean to sound sectarian in anyway, but not every Christian church deals with the devil in the same way."

"I…" Chloe stopped. "I'm not…" Which was the correct way to tell a reverend that you didn't believe in the Bible, any Bible that is?

He shook his head as though he wanted to dispel her fears. "I understand. I will then assume that you're familiar with the concept which you can find in popular culture." The reverend opened one of his drawers and took out a picture of a man with a goatee, a black cape, a red tail and horns.

Chloe immediately smiled thinking about what Lucifer would look like wearing that corny old costume, but the joy faded as soon as she remembered the blood on Jimmy Barnes' cell door. She cleared her throat. "I am."

Reverend Egbert put the picture back in his drawer. "Well, what can you tell me about the devil?"

"He was cast from Heaven," she started.

The man nodded. "Absolutely. You are right about that."

"He is the ruler of hell."

"Right, once again."

Chloe took a deep breath. "He is the epitome of all that is evil."

The reverend paused, this time around, and cocked his head to the side. "Now, that is a common misconception. But how come you would doubt that?"

"Doubt it?" Chloe repeated. She straightened her back. "The devil is evil, it's well known." As much as she tried to sound convincing, she'd never believed in the devil. And now that she started to believe Lucifer really was that mythical entity, she couldn't bring herself to think that he was truly evil. Then again, wasn't that the kind of trick demons were supposed to pull? "But wait, you said it's a misconception?"

The reverend gave a little sigh. "Sadly, people too often mix things up together. For instance, much like Judaism, Christianism has only one god. The good god, if you will. But the way we understand things often bring us to believe that if there's right, there's wrong. Manicheanism is a prime example of that. One good god, one evil god. However, while there is a concept of Satan, in the Bible – even in the Old Testament – this is not the devil."

Thankfully, Chloe had been a detective long enough to follow even the most boring conversation with some kind of interest. While she'd come here to learn more about the scholar's view on Lucifer, she couldn't help herself but feel like this was all nonsense anyway. Still, the reverend had a rather systematic approach of the problem for a believer. He didn't go on a fiery rampage, warning about the works of the devil in our everyday life. But most importantly, he was telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. Even if Lucifer was the devil, it didn't mean that he was evil.

"You must not forget that Lucifer is and remains an angel. He is a creature of God and not a god himself. Why would God create an evil angel?"

Chloe frowned. "But didn't he get cast out of heaven after he corrupted Adam and Eve? Isn't that evil?"

The reverend looked at her with kindness, but she felt that he was also a bit amused by her remark. "People love to make assumptions. I assume you've never read the Bible with any real attention. The serpent, the snake told Eve to eat the fruit. And God condemned the snake to live on his belly. It tells the story of why snakes don't have legs, and why we do not live in Eden anymore." He paused for her to assimilate what he was saying. "Satan… It means adversary. Some would argue that it's a figure of speech for adversity, actually. God would not have to work, and humankind wouldn't have to struggle if it weren't for some kind of adversity."

"So Lucifer is the devil. But Satan is not?" Chloe tried.

"It's very possible that Satan isn't an entity but a title to qualify those not human who act against God."

"Wait, if he didn't get cast out of Heaven because of the apple, then why?"

The reverend put his hands together. "Well, it's complicated. In fact, it's unclear. According to certain manuscripts, Lucifer was cast down from Heaven with many other angels because they wanted to sleep with humans."

"I could imagine that," Chloe said almost despite herself, thinking about Lucifer's promiscuity. Maze didn't exactly seem like the kind to wear a chastity belt, but for some reason, that didn't bother the detective in anyway.

"There is however little to confirm the fact. While many scholars have made large speculations as to the order of angels, their hierarchy and their place in Heaven, only one thing transpires as to the nature of angels."

Chloe did her best not to press the reverend to continue while he was searching a stack of papers, behind his desk. He came up with a rather simple chart, a large piece of paper separated in two, on the top, drawings of winged figures, on the bottom, pictures of bits and pieces of a fresco.

"Each angel has a purpose. Each of them is an agent of God, a worker if you will."

She studied the chart, or rather, looked frenetically for the devil. In vain. "What about Lucifer?"

"Lucifer, literally light-bringer." He tapped the very first figure under which there was an abstract carving of wavy shapes under rectangular shapes. "The very first. Right after God created Heaven and Earth, back when there was no hell and everything was darkness. God said…" The reverend paused and looked at her.

"Let there be light," she completed.


	2. Taste no evil (1 of 4)

**N/A: Thanks for the Review & Fav & Follow! I really appreciate the support. Here's the first part of the first episode!**

 **Let there be Truth – Taste no evil 1**

"So, wait. That would mean that Lucifer would be as old as the Earth?" Chloe asked.

"Actually, given a broader interpretation and an acceptance of modern science, since the beginning of the Universe. The Devil would have experienced not only the formation of the galaxy but also the entirety of human history, from the cavemen to the birth of the Internet."

* * *

Chloe cringed as she heard the tribal sounding music that filled the Lux club after dark. It sounded more like noise than anything else to her, but that could be explained by the fact the audio system had been cranked up to eleven. Had the place not close at dawn, Lucifer may have very well woke up the whole neighborhood in the middle of the night.

She quickly walked to the bar where she found Maze, sulking as ever while she apparently was doing an inventory of the club's liquor cabinet.

"Hey!" Chloe called, but Maze kept to her clipboard and bottles. "Could you turn it down a bit, I need to speak to Lucifer."

Maze finally turned her head towards her and grinned. She softly touched the controls of the audio system and the volume went up significantly. Chloe put her hands on her ears and wondered if the foundations could take the hit or if the whole building would collapse on her head.

Lucifer suddenly appeared in vision, dancing in the middle of the room. The strange choreography seemed very folksy and highlighted both his speed, fluidity and the shape of his body. She ignored the talented legwork and let her eyes wander on firm buttocks going left and right.

The music went suddenly silent and Chloe coughed when Lucifer turned before she could avert her eyes. He smiled at her embarrassed expression, and greeted her with his usual, "Detective." He calmly regain his nonchalant posture and walked towards her. "Do you like the beats from the Balkan? Or are you here to see me?"

She cleared her throat and took the dossier she had under her arm. "I might need your access for something."

"And what would that be?" he asked, extending an arm.

Chloe clenched her teeth when his fingers touched the back of her hand as he took the dossier. She knew he'd done it on purpose and she did not appreciate the unsolicited contact, although she could hardly argue the appealing aspect of it.

Lucifer browsed the document. "Oh. L'Océan. A charming little restaurant. Are you trying to wine and dine me, Officer?"

"Classy," she commented. "No, we need to have eyes on a suspect who is going to dine at L'Océan, this evening. The problem is that there is no reservation available."

"I'm sure the owner would love to help the police," he said. He obviously wanted her to admit that she wanted to work with him again, and in a sense, she did. Not that she wanted to spend any time with him because of his childish personality or dancing skills. She was just intrigued by the nature of his claims and the truth there might be to them.

"We have reasons to believe that he might have ties to the Bratva. That's…"

"The Russian mob, yes, I'm well aware, Detective. They've sent me some of my most precious guests these past years." He tapped his chin. "Maurice? What a little rascal. I never thought he would have it in him to associate with the sort. Well, you humans always seem to surprise me when it comes to how low you can stoop."

Chloe suddenly remembered what the Reverend had told her the other day. This was an opportunity to get some information. "Because leaving Heaven to bang humans is better?"

He chuckled. "Oh, how you love to flatter yourselves when it comes to sex appeal." He came a little closer and put the dossier back under her arm, his body so close to hers that she could feel the radiating heat. "I could imagine one renouncing Heaven for you, Detective, but I'd doubt it would only have to do with sex."

Chloe frowned. _Don't blush, don't blush, don't blush,_ her mind went. She swallowed with some difficulty and took a step back. "It'd be a shame. If you did that, you'd renounce Heaven to get rejected." Although she didn't give the sentence the punch she intended, Lucifer seemed a bit vexed by it. The fact that he suddenly turned his back on her seemed to confirm it. Playboy one minute, interesting human being the next. This man was a pain to understand.

Lucifer pulled out his phone. "Maurice! _Oui, c'est moi !_ Could I have a reservation for tonight." He had a clear laugh and turned towards Chloe again. "Yes, a splendid specimen."


	3. Taste no evil (2 of 4)

**N/A: I don't think I'll be able to keep the frequency of updates that high, but since I've had such a great welcome here, I'm trying to reward your enthusiasm and kindness. Enjoy!**

 **Thanks a lot, Aytheria, for highlighting the typo!**

 **Let there be Truth - Taste no evil 2**

"Then, shouldn't he be wise?" Chloe asked, thinking about the billions of years the devil must have lived. Wisdom came with age, didn't it?

"I am afraid not," the reverend said. "We are talking about an immortal being. Concepts of time, and thus of age, are of no consequence in this matter. The experiences of such an entity in the immaterial plane are not comparable to ours on Earth. Our elders are wiser than us because they made mistake, they were hurt, and they learned not to be. Lucifer rebelled against God, his father, and since then he has lived away from Heaven, in a kingdom of his own."

"So… What?" An idea suddenly struck her. An idea that fitted perfectly. "Lucifer is a teenager?" Of course, he was. The constant urges, the need to be a smart-mouth, rebellion against authority, a feeling of indestructability, a complete disregard for consequences.

The reverend covered his mouth. "Interesting thought. I never saw it under this angle. Yes, in a way it fits. The need to assert one's own authority over their own lives, and a very axiological view of the world."

"Axiological?" Chloe frowned. She didn't exactly study English literature to be a Detective.

"Good or bad," he said. "When one wants to find oneself, right and wrong need to be clearly established. There are many templates, many of which are actually religious, but they don't need to be. I have a nephew who's a rock fan and he hates rap on principle. He never looked for a song that might appeal to him, he just rejects it entirely."

Stubborn, Chloe thought. Yes, it definitely fitted Lucifer.

* * *

The clean-shaved, round-bellied Frenchman shook Lucifer's hand with a chuckle, his eyes on Chloe. "You were not kidding, my friend," he said with an heavy Mediterranean accent. "You are, Madame, breath-taking." He shook her hand just as he had with Lucifer. Perhaps the man had experience enough with women to know not to treat them differently? Chloe thought. "If you would like to follow me, I've prepared my most romantic table for you, with a view on the city."

Chloe scanned the room and immediately smiled. She spotted a candle-lit table just by the large windows, but most importantly, she recognized her target sitting next to it. Not only would she have eyes on the subject, she could probably hear his whole conversation. Most worryingly, he could probably also listen to hers, and if Lucifer was as discreet as ever… Her smile faded.

"Madame?" Maurice said, perceptive man that he was.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just famished." At least, she didn't have to lie about that. With all the stress her business with Lucifer had left her with, she hardly had any appetite. However, the scents coming from the room, all around her, in this beautiful restaurant untied the knot in her belly, and her stomach could have been growling.

Artyom Asimov was a bear of a man, six foot four for a good two hundred and fifty pounds. He had a hard face with angular edges and his shoulders were broad enough that she could see them framing Lucifer's face at the table. Despite his rather primal appearance, the man seemed to have good manner. He sat straight, thanked the waiter, recommended a soup to his guests and spoke with a charming Russian accent. Yes, charming. _It takes a gentleman to make that accent sound appealing,_ Chloe thought.

"Are you allergic to shellfish?" Lucifer asked.

"No," she replied absent-mindedly as she kept focus on the conversation that was happening next to them.

"Then, you must try the lobster, it's to die for. I should know. I once had a scammer go to hell after dining here, hence the question about allergies." He smiled at his own joke, but Chloe could barely see it, her mind totally focused on her hearing rather than her vision.

Lucifer lowered his menu to look at her but it soon turned into a stare. "I hope I'm not boring you," he said, very passive-aggressive.

Once again, she didn't care. "No, no," she said. "The lobster will be fine."

He tried to meet her eyes, but she wasn't looking anywhere really. The conversation had picked up behind and shipping routes were being discussed, although she didn't really understand what they were saying. The blue door, the green door, it must have been a code because it made no sense and…

" _Privet,_ big boy!"

Chloe snapped out of it when she realized Lucifer had just turned around to slap his hand on Asimov's shoulder. She bit her tongue so she wouldn't ask what the hell he was doing, and watch the events unfold as the air-headed date she pretended to be.

"Do I know you?" Asimov did not sound charming anymore.

"No, I don't think so, but you should." He let go of his shoulder to try and shake his hand. "My name is Lucifer. Morningstar. I own the Lux, you must have heard about it."

"Not interested," Asimov said and he turned around. Or at least he tried, because Lucifer grabbed his arm before he could. All kinds of alarms started to sound in Chloe's head.

"Well, if you're preferring New York to Louisiana to import whatever it is you're smuggling into the country, maybe you need to be interested."

Suddenly everyone at Asimov's table was looking straight at Lucifer. Chloe immediately felt like calling reinforcement, but then again, she was curious to find out what Lucifer really knew. She did her best to ignore the raging anger that arose from the fact he didn't tell her beforehand that he knew anything about this kind of transactions. LAPD could have used a bit of translation.

"The blue door? The green door? It's all very transparent and you haven't changed your parlance since the poor Iago died."

"You knew Iago?" an old man asked. He had a large burn scar on his neck and talked very slowly.

"Knew? Oh, I know the fellow! He's very chatty, especially when you…" Lucifer had a nasty grin. "You don't need to know. I wouldn't want to inspire new ways of torturing people. I know you're very efficient at the task already."

"Iago isn't dead?" Asimov exclaimed. He even seemed a bit panicked at the idea.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. He is very dead. His soul passed a good decade ago. I wouldn't worry about him. Although he did say he admired your initiative. I mean, killing your own mentor, it must have been quite the game-changer." From amused, Lucifer's mood suddenly turned to threatening. "But never mind what the poor chap is experiencing in hell. Your punishment will be tenfold."

"Take your hand off of me," Asimov warned.

For a second, Lucifer had a look that said 'make me', but he finally let go of the mobster. "Of course."

Asimov said something in Russian to the table and they all stood up at once.

Lucifer turned to Asimov's associates as well. "But if any of you would like to know a better way to get into the country, one that even old Iago didn't know, feel free to call me. Lux, it's in the phonebook. And the Internet, of course."

Chloe stood in shock as the target and his accomplices left the premises. The words that came to her mind would have made a hardened sailor blush like a debutante.


	4. Taste no evil (3 of 4)

**N/A: Your support is amazing and really inspires me (well, let's be honest, so does the show). I'm trying to focus more on character interactions than I'm used to (I'm generally more plot oriented), just let me know if it's too heavy-handed.**

 **Let there be Truth - Taste no evil 3**

Chloe didn't know what to make of this. Sure, she could imagine Lucifer as a teenager without trouble, but the Devil? What would such a powerful entity do when anger would take hold of him? She remembered her father's funeral. The blinding rage, the need to inflict a pain similar to hers. She would have cracked more than the paparazzo's lens if she had been able to throw more than one punch, that day. She frowned. Leaving Heaven and cutting his wings, that's probably something he would do. But then, would he really do that just for the benefit of sex?

Yes, most men seemed to place getting laid at the top of their list, but there was pain in his eyes when she'd touched his back. Not physical pain either, he was sad. Now that she thought about it, this might have been the only time she'd seen him sad. When he'd almost lost her just after he'd met her, when his protégée, a young singer, had been killed, he'd shown nothing but anger and resentment. Sadness was left alone for his father and their quarrel.

Her ever working mind suddenly piqued her interest elsewhere.

"When you were talking about the reason why he was cast from heaven, you mention the nature of angels," Chloe said. "What did that have to do with it?"

"According to some Scripture, the Flood was cast from Heaven in order to eliminate the Nephilim. That is the offspring of humans and angels. However not only are angels presumed to be genderless, but their nature does not entail that they should be able to procreate. They are immortal, their species does not need procreation to prosper, and there only needs to be one for every task God has bestowed upon them."

"So why do you think some angels fell?"

"Personally?" the reverend asked, apparently looking for the authorization to speak his mind despite his unpopular opinion. Chloe nodded. "I don't think they fell. I think Lucifer was the only one to leave Heaven."

Chloe suddenly thought about Maze. "What about the demons, then? Aren't they supposed to be fallen angels?"

The reverend slowly tapped his finger on the bit of fresco under Lucifer's representation. "God created light, Detective. The darkness was already there."

* * *

"Now, why would you do that?" Chloe asked, trying to keep the beast that was her rage under a tight leash.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Lucifer said. "They are obviously going to check if what I said is true, which it is, by the way. Once they find out it is, they'll dispatch Artyom and come to me to find out where the intel came from. The Bratva inner workings aren't exactly that mysterious. It's not the DMV." Once again, he grinned at his joke.

"You send a man to his death like that?" Chloe looked at him, stunned by the nonchalance he was still displaying when talking about a man's life.

"Well, it's hardly my fault, is it? The man did his murdering all on his own. I won't be the one pulling the trigger." He shook his head. "You humans always misplace blame. Blaming a rape victim for wearing skimpy clothes. Pointing the finger at the police officer when a lunatic kills a man under his watch."

Chloe blinked. "But the man will die because of what you said!"

"I resent that accusation. He will only die because someone will kill him. I didn't order a hit on him." He frowned. "How can you be mad at me for telling the truth? Don't we want the same thing? Punishing bad guys?"

"If you had knowledge of a murder, you should have told the police, not a bunch of mobsters."

"You don't believe that, I hope. There's hardly any evidence, now. Artyom was very meticulous. The Bratva is way easier to convince than one of your petty courts. He would have gotten away with it."

"That's how the justice system works, Lucifer, whether you like it or not!"

"Well, I wouldn't say it works if murderers get away all the time." Lucifer turned towards Maurice who just came back with the food he had ordered for the both of them. He breathed in deeply the delicious scent of the lobster and salted sauce, then put his napkin on his laps. " _Merci, mon cher,_ " he thanked him without the slightest trace of an accent.

" _Tout le plaisir est pour moi._ And here is yours, Madame." The jolly Frenchman placed a plate in front of Chloe, but she was too pissed off to care.

Her eyes were still fixed on Lucifer and his smug face. "Don't you think that it's more important that innocent people don't go to jail?"

"Now, now, don't you think there's a reason I was made to rule hell, Detective?" He gestured towards his perfectly shaped torso. "Facts are not all that matters in judging a soul. You could hardly blame a mother for killing the man about to harm her child, unless of course she'd always been looking for a reason to kill. I find out whether people are evil or not, and trust me, I can assure you that Artyom Asimov is guilty as can be."

Good old Maurice took a step back, an expensive wine bottle secured by his fingertips in order to keep it safe without warming it. As the owner of one of the most romantic and expensive restaurant in LA, the man probably had seen his fair share of fighting couples. Chloe clenched her jaws. How could she ever think of them as a couple when Lucifer had such disrespect for something as sacred as a human life?

A teenager. It came back to her. If Lucifer truly lacked the experiences of living on Earth, then perhaps he didn't value life because he was seldom acquainted with mortality? It made sense, in a way. If he was the devil and had only dealt with eternal, wicked souls, then how could he see how precious and fragile a life was?

Lucifer cocked his head, surprised that she suddenly seemed out of repartee.

But she was struck by something that tasted very much like truth. A teenager. He'd done something stupid, and she'd been so bent over knowing why that she hadn't considered when. He was trying to get her attention and she totally dismissed him. If she'd hated getting the attention of the paparazzi, it had never been as harmful as being ignored by her mother because of her acting job.

Chloe stood up. She wasn't his girlfriend and she surely wasn't his mom.

"What are you doing, Detective?"

"I'm leaving," she said, perhaps a little too harshly.

"But why? You said it yourself, you're famished and the lobster is succulent."

Chloe glared at him. "I came here to listen to a conversation you interrupted. The LAPD doesn't need your help anymore in this investigation."

She left in a hurry. This wasn't what she wanted, not at all. He had once again put her whole investigation in danger because of his twisted morals, and was putting not only her carrier in jeopardy, but also…

Chloe froze at the door.

His life.


	5. Taste no evil (4 of 4)

**N/A: I think this got a bit out of hand. I hope you don't mind this chapter being slightly longer. The next chapter will conclude this first mini-episode, but not the fanfiction itself.**

 **Let there be Truth - Taste no evil 4**

Now that she finally got to the part where she was asking questions, Chloe felt more confident and lost at the same time. There were so many things she wanted, even needed, to know. Her training went to hell and the carefully planned interrogation she would have conjured up in her line of work disappeared. Instead, she got to the most pressing question. The one that had made her believe as well as doubt Lucifer's true nature.

"So, Lucifer is immortal?"

Once again, the reverend had a benevolent smile. "Of course, you aren't a believer, so my reply might not satisfy you, but yes. Lucifer is immortal, and so are we."

She paused and glared at the man she'd thought to be quite rational in his investigation so far. Chloe wouldn't have thought this centered scholar would have thought himself invincible.

"Our soul is immortal," Egbert clarified.

"What about his body?" Chloe didn't think about it this way, indeed. After all if God and the Devil existed, then surely so did Hell and Heaven.

"Well, much like any angel, Lucifer would exist on a different plane than ours. He wouldn't have a body." The reverend thought that was enough, but since the detective kept staring, he turned his chair back towards the bookcase behind him. "You have to understand that when angels descend to Earth, they are generally carrying a message for a prophet. The only heavenly entity to actually have a body in Christianism is God himself, who visited Earth as Jesus Christ. Well, as I said before, this varies depending on your denomination."

He presented her with a couple of books and talked about the difference of opinion on the subject. This time, her interest did fade as he talked about the concept of Docetism and the like. The man, who had seemed to understand her Lucifer so well, suddenly appeared as he really was: an enthusiast who had spent most of his life studying antique manuscripts. Her Lucifer, she cringed at her inner choice of words.

The reverend must have picked up on it, because he suddenly stopped his rambling. "Now, if it were in Lucifer's power to adopt a carnal form, he would very much be in control of it. While the embodiment of an angel would possibly appear human, they would remain otherworldly creature immune to harm."

"Let's assume that they wouldn't." Chloe tried to appeal to a nerd's appetite for 'what ifs'. "What if Lucifer could bleed? What if he happened to die on Earth."

Reverend Egbert covered his mouth once again and took a bit of time to open his laptop and type a few words. Too curious to care about being reprimanded, Chloe leaned on her side to glance at the screen. All she could see were photos of old pieces of papyrus possibly covered in Hebrew. Egbert shook his head and opened one of his many bibles.

"If incarnation was a unique process and could not be achieved by different means, then I assume his embodiment would experience the same thing as Jesus Christ. He would die and… Well, in lieu of Heaven, he would probably descend to Hell. However, while God is infinite and the Son could sit to the right of the Father, Lucifer would not."

Chloe frowned. She didn't understand what he was getting at.

"Lucifer would go to hell, but he wouldn't go back as its ruler. He would be damned, just like the souls he watched over for millions of years."

Chloe felt her heart sink at the thought. "Who would rule, then?"

"If God did not appoint a new angel, then the demons, I suppose."

She thought about the analogy the reverend had used earlier. Lucifer had been the warden of hell since its inception. What would prisoners do to a warden if it suddenly ended up in gen pop with no one but criminals to watch out for him?

* * *

The FBI had treated Chloe like a traitor to her country after the fiasco at the restaurant, but the police chief hardly hold it against her. Somehow, as soon as she'd mentioned Lucifer acting out, her boss had been more interested in the devil's romantic status than the investigation report.

Of course, the unnerving club owner had been right about the Bratva taking care of Asimov's case. The bear of a man had been found cut in two on the old rails of the city, as though he'd been left there for a train to roll over him. A gruesome end to a ruthless life. Chloe didn't have to fight anyone to get hold of the position of lead investigator, cops in her precinct were comfortable enough putting surveillance on shady producers to risk exposing themselves to the real criminals of this world.

The killer was probably a hitman for the Russian mob, and she didn't really care about that. What mattered was that she had an opportunity to keep an eye on the people who would come after Lucifer, to find out his sources. If the devil thought he was immortal, she'd seen him bleed. He was accustomed to a life deprived of all danger, she'd have to be careful for him.

For the tenth time that night, she pulled back the slide of her Smith & Wesson to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber. She'd kept using the Glock after shooting Jimmy Barnes, but if truth be told, she'd always preferred using the nine millimeter. There wasn't any need for a bigger caliber when you had the aim, and shooting had never been her weak suit.

She could have been inside the club, right now, listening to his adorable accent and his shameless pick-up lines. There was probably some music as well as good drinks, in there. Chloe had to admit that she would have felt better if she had him in sight, when she knew he was in danger, but her intelligence did not let her. She had a perfect vantage point on the Lux from where she was. Even if someone engaged in the back ally, she would see it in the mirror of her car.

If it had been anyone else, she would have forced him into protective custody, but Lucifer had proved to her how elusive he could be. Handcuffs were quite literally bracelets to him, and she had no doubt he'd charm his way out of a cell without much trouble. As for reinforcement watching the club, she was still a pariah in the department, and Lucifer hadn't made any friends blowing their operation.

She put on the contact when she saw a van with blacked-out windows turn into the Lux's back ally. Chloe had always known how to pick the right spot to stake out a place, a family secret in a way. Familiar with the streets of Los Angeles, she had no trouble following the vehicle once it left. All doubt escaped her as she tracked the Russians back to a disaffected hangar. Finally, Chloe was back to her element. She could have called it in as soon as she parked her car, but she had to make sure they actually took Lucifer. Her career couldn't take any loss of credibility at the moment.

Chloe opened her glove box and clipped the Glock's holster to her belt before she exited the car. Having two guns might have been a bit overkill, but better to be safe than sorry, she thought. Shoot outs were that much more likely to happen with a smart mouth like Lucifer around. She should know. She shot him.

The detective slipped into the hangar through a fire exit that led to the catwalk above the workspace, where the foreman's office was. She pressed the gun against her palm and lift it up, her index finger extended along the barrel. She breathed in deeply and slowly followed the silhouette of one of the henchman, keeping him in her sights while he got to the back of the van to open it. Chloe recognized Lucifer despite the bag on his head. The expensive black suit was a telltale sign, of course, but the fact that he kept a relaxed demeanor despite being kidnapped was the real proof.

She kept her weapon raised while she used the other to use her phone and call it in. They started talking as she whispered, which prevented her from understanding any of what they said. While she remained concise, she not only had to tell the police where she was but how many people were there, how many suspects, how many civilians. She gave as much information as she could.

"I'm not going to give you the route," she heard Lucifer say once she hung up.

"Not only… Are you going… To give us the route… You will give us… Your source." Chloe didn't see the burn scar from here, but she knew by the rhythm and accent that it was the old man from the restaurant. It suddenly occurred to her that Asimov might have not only invited his peers to the restaurant. Maybe his boss was there too. Now, that was a collar the LAPD would be proud to make.

"Oh, you think you've seen the worst because of your little scratch," Lucifer said rubbing his hand on his own neck. "But trust me, pal, you haven't seen it yet."

Out of nowhere, the old man let out a sharp cry. " _Na pomosh!_ " He gestured to his henchmen who looked at him as though he'd lost his mind. " _Pristreli yego!_ "

Lucifer extended his arms. "Please, do! I'm looking forward to it."

Chloe recognized the flippant attitude and the excitation in his voice, the same he had during their last case together. She might not have understood Russian, but he did, and that gave her enough notice to secure her aim. Once of the henchmen pulled out his gun and immediately dropped it when he took two bullets to the shoulder.

"What now?" Lucifer exclaimed, apparently disappointed.

Second henchman, same reaction time. Chloe counted the bullets mentally as she continued to take down the unsuspecting opposition. Finally, a volley of bullets came her way and she ducked behind the railing. She knew that she couldn't pop up again, unless she wanted to test her own mortality. With a silent swearword, she jumped over the railing onto the stairs. She hurried down and found cover behind an old piece of machinery. SWAT response time was always good when there was an officer on the line, even one as despised as her, and there was so little traffic to the old industrial site that they could probably get there even faster. Still, her life wasn't the only one she had to save.

"We have to go!" one of the bodyguards shouted to the old man.

The old man probably didn't have any more breath to spare on yelling, but one of his men did it for him, which is perhaps why he spoke English. "Kill them first, we can't afford the publicity!" A rather loose translation, Chloe was sure.

The adrenaline put a nasty grin on her face as she imagined taking out both guns and rushing in like in a John Woo scene, but instead she kept her mind straight. She took the perfect path between the abandoned pieces of equipment to stay in cover, and once she was close enough, she took down two more guards before she reached Lucifer.

He greeted her with a charming smile. "Detective, I knew you wouldn't keep away from me. You can't help yourself."

"Shut up and get back in the van, we have to go."

"Can you wait a little bit? I'd like to give my compliments to the old man. He has been avoiding his judgement – earthly or not – for quite some time and I would like to finally give it to him." Lucifer rolled his head like a sportsman before an important match.

"No! That's enough. You're in danger and we need to…" Chloe blamed herself for focusing on him when a silhouette suddenly popped up from behind a couple of rusted barrels. She raised her gun and pressed the trigger, but nothing happened.

Lucifer met her eyes as she let the panic take hold of her for a second, and she saw understanding in his look. He put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed before turning in order to present his back to the gunman. Despite herself, Chloe counted five bullets. There was no pain, however. She had been shot before. She remembered the shock, the pressure, the blazing heat that came afterwards. She was fine, but Lucifer?

Chloe looked up to him and saw the closed eyes, the mouth distorted in a grimace, waiting to suffer. And suddenly, his eyebrows jumped on his forehead, almost reaching his hairline. He smiled without malice, just plain relief. Chloe felt like laughing when he flicked his finger at her arm, like he had in the car when she asked what he felt when he got shot.

Lucifer turned around and suddenly the men flew backwards.

The devil was back.


	6. Taste no evil (Conclusion)

**N/A: I'd rather avoid having to many parts in a single chapter, so Reverend Ecbert won't be featured in this conclusion, sorry. I hope you will enjoy the addition that I made, however. Thanks again for reading and for all your support following and reviewing the story.**

 **Let there be Truth – Taste no evil / Conclusion**

"You went alone on a stake out regarding one of your investigations and ended up injuring no less than seven mobsters, which were all arrested once the reinforcements arrived. Your weapon jammed in the middle of the firefight, as you secured the civilian involved, and you kept going with your spare piece, saving his life as well as yours. You also identified the lieutenant of the Kashirin Bratva operating in LA." The chief of police put the report back onto her desk and looked at Chloe with wide eyes. "Where have you been hiding all this potential, Decker? A seedy little record producer sent you to the hospital, you investigated a lead while being on leave, and you got a civilian injured during an investigation. Suddenly, you're the FBI equivalent to a war hero. They'd give you a medal for this if they could, and about two days ago, they'd have buried your carrier instead."

Chloe lowered her head, both humble and uneasy because of the strange kind of flattering her boss was dispatching today. It almost felt like she didn't want to congratulate her but had no choice. Still, Chloe knew where she came from. She had been asking herself the same question: how come this had gone so smoothly?

And the answer was annoying as hell, literally. Since the moment he had met her, Lucifer had expressed a certain confidence in her and most importantly her ability as a detective. Smart and with instinct, he had said, or something like that. Her parents had always been supportive, of course, but her father had never seen her go to the academy, and once she got there, she still was the girl from _Hot Tub High School_. Nobody had ever told her that she was a good detective, now that she thought about it. Even Dan hadn't been that supportive and he was the father of her child.

"You know what that means, right?" the chief said.

Chloe straightened her back. Lost in her thoughts, she hadn't really paid attention at her boss's speech. Luckily enough, the question was rhetorical.

"You are officially out of the no man's land, Decker. Your partner will be there tomorrow. I count on you to show him the ropes and make him as good a detective as you are." She extended an open hand. "Well done, Officer."

 _My what?_ Chloe bit her tongue to stifle the exclamation and shook her boss's hand without a word. She had no idea what had just happened, but for some reason she didn't trust it. She'd been running alone for quite some time now, and as she finally started to accept Lucifer's involvement in her investigations, someone else was ushered in her affairs.

In a way, she was glad she would finally get a partner, the natural state of any self-respecting cop, but something didn't bode well. Lucifer seemed like the jealous kind and his status as a teenager did nothing to reinsure her.

* * *

Lucifer strutted down the stairs of the Lux and ended with a little entrechat under Maze's unamused eyes. The demon turned bartender poured them both a heavy drink and walked to him with her usual feline gait.

"So, did you finally bed the woman?" she asked with a sigh.

"Which one?" Lucifer asked, obviously in a playing mood. "No, no, Maze. I didn't bed anyone tonight, although the night is still young." He winked and smoothly spun on the back of his heels to reveal the bullet holes in his expansive costume. "I've been shot. Multiple times. By multiple men. With multiple weapons. It seems I'm back to my old self, so you see, there's no cause for alarm. We can stay here for as long as we want."

Maze was taken aback, but while he thought it was his sudden return to immortality that surprised her, the demon was in fact stunned by what seemed like idiocy. She knew better than to think Lucifer an idiot, however. The angel was probably the smartest being in the whole of creation, or at least he was when he reflected on anything but himself and his tantrums. Self-aware, the devil was not.

"Don't you see what that means?" she exclaimed.

"Well, I just told you. It means we can stay."

"No, Lucifer. It means that she is the reason you bled. She is the one who can harm you, and we both know what that means." He'd made her swear not to ever talk about the time she took his wings under his orders, but Maze was a demon, she didn't care about keeping her word the way he did. "The only reason my blades could cut your skin, Lucifer, was your own will. You are in control."

He shook his head. "That's nonsense." Lucifer sounded just as angry as dismissive, and she knew him enough to understand that the only person he could lie to was himself.

"Tell me you didn't come here to die," Maze felt a bitter taste in her mouth as she spoke the words. The only thought of losing him brought a sharp pain, a clue to the devastating feeling that would take hold of her if he disappeared.

"What?" Lucifer chuckled. "Of course not. I'm well aware of what happens to the suicidal. I have no intention of experiencing that, trust me."

"I trust you, Lucifer," she came closer and put her hands on his hip after she got rid of her glass. "I went to hell for you and I followed you to this miserable place as well. I would swear my servitude to you if you were interested in having servitors, give away my freedom." She clenched her fist and her nails scratch his skin, leaving an ephemeral mark under his shirt. "But I will not give you away. I won't let Him take you back."

Lucifer laughed clear and high. "You think my father wants me back? Oh, Mazikeen, how childish a thought!"

"Of course I think he wants you back, Lucifer. I don't know a being in this world that doesn't love you as much as they hate you." She put her palm on his cheek, and although she didn't have the strength or the influence to force his eyes down onto hers, he was kind enough to meet her gaze. "Your word is your bound, Lucifer. Promise me you aren't looking for a way out of eternity."

Lucifer gently grabbed her hand and grinned as he placed it on his firm buttocks. "If there were a way out of eternity, I wouldn't want you to find it, my dear. And there is nowhere I would want to go without my most precious friend." He closed his eyes and the music suddenly started playing. When he opened them back, they were bright with hell's fire but instead of wrath, Maze saw the warmth of his true power. "Let us dance."


	7. Tell no soul 1

Disclaimer: The first episode in this FanFiction was written before Episode 105 of the show. I have decided to keep with the arc I've started, since it's the one that has allowed me to get the support which inspires me now. I apologize for the fact that some aspects might be canonically wrong and that the relationship between the characters isn't exactly in the same place as it is on screen (notably between Lucifer and Mazikeen). I however do not apologize for introducing another original character, because I'm sure I'll have plenty of fun with it.

* * *

 **Let there be Truth – Tell no soul 1**

The reverend put a cup in front of Chloe and poured the coffee from an old-looking porcelain set. For an instant, she forgot all the questions that put her brain to the brink of a headache, and instead appreciated the angels depicted on the coffee pot. The golden plating was almost entirely scraped away but you could still see the grey outline of their wings on the white surface. She drank slowly after thanking Reverend Egbert and sighed.

"Muffin?" the bearded man asked, presenting a box of nearly stale cakes.

"No, thank you, very much." She paused to let him take a bite and a sip of coffee, but the questions came back soon enough. "What would be your reaction if the devil walked the Earth?"

"Lucifer himself?" He smiled as though the thought amused him. "I don't think I would dread it much. He is not the antichrist." The reverend shook his head. "Contrary to what some politicians might think, I doubt our generation will witness the end times."

"Why do you think he'd be there?" A question she had asked herself since she entertained the idea that he might actually be the devil.

"I don't know. As I said, angels usually visit the Earth as messengers to a prophet, but the Fallen? He might actually be the only one of them to act of his own accord. You would have to ask him."

* * *

Lucifer showed up at the station early in the morning, an hour at which Chloe would have thought he'd still be deep asleep between a pair of attractive people. Yet, the devil was there, standing tall and smiling at the officer in charge of the reception. When he saw Chloe, of course, he totally dismissed the person he was talking to and greeted her with his usual, "Detecti-ves?" he raised an eyebrow at the young man following her.

Detective Ramirez didn't exactly look like a poster child for the police department. With the look on his face, his cut-up eyebrow and his too-often broken nose, the man could have easily been taken for a criminal. Yet, he was standing next to Chloe quite naturally and seemed to have no trouble fitting in the force.

Maybe working with the devil had rendered Chloe a little paranoid, but she'd pulled a few strings in order to get a look at the man's record before they met. He'd been born and raised in L.A., just like her, but on the other side of the white picket fence. His father wasn't a policeman and he died much younger than hers. As for his mother, she was no actress, and in fact was still working to this day as a nurse. The young man had met quite some success at the Academy while both his brothers managed to get incarcerated in the same year, in two different counties. Ramirez had quite the reputation among the uniforms, and his superior stepped in to make sure he got a promotion to detective as soon as he passed the three year minimum period in the force. He was twenty-two when he made it to sergeant, and he was now twenty-three and her partner in Homicide.

Lucifer side-stepped next to her. "Isn't he a little young for you, Detective? I didn't know you were such a cougar." He grinned. "Although I knew you were into bad boys from the start." The devil pointed his finger at his own, handsome face.

If anything, Chloe felt like his nose could have used some breaking as well. Maybe she didn't need a bullet to make him bleed? She rolled her eyes. Not that she would actually harm him.

Chloe stomped on his left foot as she walked towards the exit. Okay, maybe she would harm him a little. "We are on a case, Lucifer. I have no time for this."

"Ow!" Lucifer quickly followed, although he did have a small limp. "Well, I am a consultant, maybe I can help. What do you say, young fellow?"

Ramirez kept walking next to Chloe, totally ignoring Lucifer and his childish behavior.

"Not very talkative, your friend, Detective," the devil commented. "You do sorely need me to keep your spirits high. One day with him and you'll lose all will to live."

Chloe smiled. "Yes, you're probably right. But look on the bright side, one day without you and I'll possibly lose the will to kill you."

"Well, you did shoot me!" he exclaimed.

Ramirez seemed to pick up on that, as he glanced at Chloe.

"Never mind him, he's just a pain." She did her best to try and avoid looking guilty, but she still hadn't forgiven herself for wounding him. After what had happened with the Russians, she didn't really doubt his identity anymore, but still. Devil or not, he didn't deserve the pain in her eyes.

Lucifer jogged to the car in order to get there before Ramirez and put his hand on the door, but before he could open it, Chloe exclaimed, "Don't you dare!"

He looked at her with his usual bratty attitude, but when he was met with a very serious look, the devil did get his hand off the car.

"You can come with us if you must, but you'll sit in the back. My partner is riding shotgun." Chloe turned towards Ramirez who took his place without any comment, snarky or otherwise.

The awkward silence that followed survived until the car got out of the parking lot, at which point, Lucifer had to say something, as usual. "So, Detective, how come you are working with my detective?"

"I'm not your detective!" Chloe retorted.

Lucifer ignored her and leaned forward to get a look at the young man's profile. Or perhaps he was just trying to be closer in order to get his magic going. As much as she enjoyed the advantages of his power over perps and witnesses, Chloe felt uneasy seeing him do that to the person who would possibly have her back for years to come.

It took a while, but Ramirez answered. "I've been appointed as a criminal investigator. Detective Decker is my first partner."

"Of course, she is." Lucifer smirked. "You look like you're out of kindergarten. If it was a place for street boxers, that is. You will see, she has plenty of tricks to teach you. After all, she taught me quite a few things, and I'm older than dirt! Literally."

Instead of a comeback, Ramirez offered nothing but silence. By the look on Lucifer's face, he saw him as a stick in the mud. Still, Chloe had nothing against a little quiet, and seeing the devil that frustrated because of somebody else was priceless. If anything, her partner was really only earning good points in her book.

"Oh, I'll make him talk," Lucifer said when he met her eyes in the mirror. He got a little closer and put his hand on Ramirez's seat. "Tell me, Detective. What is your deepest, darkest desire?"

Slowly, Ramirez turned his head towards the devil. They looked each other in the eyes, and Chloe was quite glad that the streets were clogged with cars today, because she wanted to see what happened. She needed to find out who her partner really was, and although it was a nasty shortcut, Lucifer's talent was the easiest way to learn what people were hiding. Still, the man kept silent.

"What do you really, really want?" Lucifer got closer, his face at mere inches from her partner's.

"I…" Ramirez seemed uneasy as he cracked. "I really…" He cocked his head to the side. "I really want to know why I want to tell you."

Lucifer's eyes widened at the unexpected answer, his mouth opened slightly.

Chloe suddenly burst into laughter when she saw his face.


	8. Tell no soul 2

**N/A: Hey! Sorry for the lack of updates, this week, I've had to move around because of my internet connection and work. I have to say that episode 105 also had a bit to do with it (let's be truthful, I didn't like the scene between Lucifer and Maze). I've managed to write a bit, but this is more of a chapter 1.5 than a chapter 2, I'm just expending on the dynamic between Chloe, Lucifer, and the new original character. So please, see this as a bonus rather than an actual chapter. I promise, there'll be a story.**

 **Let there be Truth – Tell no soul 2**

I tried, she almost told him. But she couldn't. Even though Reverend Ecbert was a man of faith, he'd probably think her crazy – or even worse, stupid – if she told him she met the devil. Now that she thought about it, that still would have been a better option than him believing her. What would a man of God do to a woman who willingly worked with Lucifer? Were the witch hunt trials that far back into the past? Still, she had to know more, and outside of Lucifer and Maze, Ecbert was the only one she could think of.

"What if he was bored?" Chloe asked, and immediately regretted it. This maybe didn't make her look crazy, but it definitely made her seem stupid. Pondering upon the boredom of a fallen angel, there was a wasted conversation. Except she knew him, and he told her he was here because he was bored.

"Bored?" Ecbert looked at the coffee in his cup. "It's a strange notion when you think about eternity. Imagine being cut off since before the dawn of time, at the inception of our universe." He paused thoughtful.

Chloe found herself praising the nerdy interest of the reverend for apparently useless questions. Maybe he just liked to think about things that were out of his reach as a means of elevating himself? As she looked around, she discarded the thought. Everything in his office screamed of simplicity and intelligence. Perhaps he didn't mind thinking about all this because it was all very true to him. And she almost felt surprise when she realized that Lucifer made it all very true for her as well. She believed in God perhaps for the first time in her life.

"He wouldn't have been cut off," she remarked.

The sentence startled the reverend a little bit. "Of course, you're right. He would have had to deal with the souls of the damned." He suddenly raised his head and looked her in the eye. "Perhaps that's it."

"What do you mean?"

"Perhaps he was fed up with spending millennia dealing with nothing but the worst of humanity."

* * *

Chloe couldn't stop staring at Lucifer's face through the mirror each time she could take her attention away from the road. Ramirez seemed to have an effect on him like he had on her. Not that he made him mad exactly, but he bothered him, and also interested him, in a way. The detective wasn't impervious to his strange charisma like she was, but he still managed to dodge the question while succumbing to his influence. In fact, now that she thought about it, most people just gave in to the need to tell the truth. Others… Well, others had a rather hard time keeping it to themselves, and when Lucifer insisted, it almost looked like harm would come to them if they didn't fess up.

"What is it with the LAPD?" Lucifer said, exasperated.

"Sorry?" Chloe asked, lost in her thoughts.

"Your detectives all seem to have it out for me. You don't seem to want me, and he can't manage to answer a bloody question."

"I'm sorry we can't all be your puppets, Lucifer." Chloe pouted a little to mock him, but she stopped when she realized he found it too adorable to get annoyed at her. There was always something strange about the way he looked at her. Well, for the stereotype she'd associated him with. Most good-looking playboys had this kind of carnivorous behavior when it came to women they wanted. This intense look, like they wanted to conquer them. Perhaps because of his ability to get most women in his bed without even trying, Lucifer didn't have that look. In fact, he looked at women like he did other people, which was sadly quite rare.

At that thought, she turned towards Ramirez. She didn't know the detective well enough, yet, but she could already tell that he didn't look at her like she was a woman. What he saw was only his new partner. No desire or intimidation, just calm respect and attention. He wanted to know more about her.

Lucifer crossed his arms. "Well, let me ask you this, young fellow. Have you seen Hot Tub High School?"

Okay, maybe Ramirez didn't need to have that be the first thing he knew about her. The whole respect and no desire thing might fade away after that, once again, sadly. It was strange to think of the devil as a feminist. If anything, she would have thought of him as a misogynistic megalomaniac. Well, he was half that.

"Don't answer that," she told him when she saw his lips start moving.

Ramirez gave her a look that she didn't understand right away. It meant, you can trust me. "No, I haven't." He looked at Lucifer through the mirror. "And I don't plan to."

"Well, it's too bad because our dear Detective Decker appears in it, unlike her bra."

And here was the twelve year-old again. "Lucifer," she growled, exasperated.

Ramirez turned around, causing Chloe to let out a deep sigh. And here it was, her partner would look at her as a porn actress because she took her top off in a stupid comedy when she was nineteen.

"Is she a good actress?" Ramirez said, looking genuinely interested.

Lucifer grinned. "Not really, but I could see why she was cast in the role." His hands circled around his chest as to draw breasts on it.

Ramirez looked disappointed. "Well, I hope we'll never have to go undercover then. That could have been a valuable skill."

This time, Chloe managed to refrain from laughing, but only because she parked her car near the crime scene.


	9. Tell no soul 3

A/N: It's been weeks and people are still following and adding this story as a favorite. Truth be told, I didn't expect such a response when I decided to stop, and I'm still not sure that I will, but after the last episode, I was able to finish this. Thanks tons for your support. This is now an Alternate Universe, pure and simple.

* * *

 **Let there be Truth – Tell no soul 3**

Unlike most of the crime scenes Chloe had been too, this one didn't stink of death as much as it did of blood. That meant that the murder had been reported moments after it occurred, which usually led her to one of two conclusions. Either the place was rather public, so she would easily find witnesses as well as a traumatized civilian who walked on the corpse; or the crime scene was secluded, so the killer probably called it in. Seeing as this was a shady apartment in the wrong side of town, rented by a single man who let his dirty laundry littering the floor besides his bed, she assumed he hadn't been found that quickly.

The responding officers told her that the tenants weren't exactly friendly towards the department. There weren't any active tension between the police and the neighborhood, but too many people had a brother or a son in jail to care about their on-goings.

When Chloe saw the body sitting at the kitchen table, she almost felt glad that nobody walked in on this. The lips were sown together, the throat slashed with a bloody mass coming off of it. Perhaps her stress-fasting wasn't such a bad thing after all, because it helped her keep it in. She turned towards her partner to see if he needed a bag or not, but Ramirez didn't seem really fazed by it. In fact, he seemed the less affected in the room.

Even Lucifer seemed troubled, which was weird of its own. The devil kept at a safe distance from the body, frowning and crossing his arms. For a man she'd known to have trouble concentrating, he seemed pretty focused on the body.

"What's wrong?" Chloe asked him.

He immediately relaxed and smirked as usual. "Admiring the handy work. Apparently, we've got a crafty little bugger running around." Lucifer gestured towards the mouth with his finger. "Tight stitches, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Ramirez said. Chloe suddenly realized he had put his blue gloves on and was carefully inspecting the corpse.

"Don't temper with the body," she warned him. This was his first day on the job, but she didn't think he'd go ahead and mess up this much. This was for CSI to do, not for them, contrary to what some TV shows would have people think.

Ramirez gave her that same look again, then he went on, "Figure eight stitches. Either the perp has medical training or they're a good knitter."

Chloe's eyes widened. She wouldn't have been able to tell a suture from another even she'd wanted to. Rather than continue arguing over the wisdom of inspecting a corpse before the coroner came by, she let her curiosity get the best of her. "And the thing…" Uncomfortable, she placed her hand on her throat.

"That's his tongue," Ramirez told her without the slightest sign of disgust. If anything, his distant attitude felt more and more creepy to Chloe. What was his deal? He could resist Lucifer's charm to an extent, and had no trouble with tongues sticking out of necks? The word sociopath came to her mind.

 _Don't judge him,_ she immediately thought. _With a face and a record like his, he might have been forced to learn how to seem detached in difficult situations._ Chloe took a deep breath.

"A Colombian necktie!" Lucifer exclaimed as though he just remembered it. "From Colombia, just like the name suggests."

Ramirez nodded. "Not much of a lead, though. It was popularized by books and TV shows."

Lucifer let out a deep sigh as Ramirez took away his moment of brilliance.

"That and the sown lips, I'd say that our vic talked to someone they shouldn't have," Ramirez continued.

This time it was Chloe's turn to burst someone's bubble. She shook her head. "No. Seems like a bit much to send a message. Sowing the lips on its own is enough, as well as slashing the throat." She shook her head and pointed at the floor, where there was almost no blood. "This was probably all done post-mortem, including the slashing of the throat. People who want to send messages usually make sure that their victim suffers."

Ramirez pressed his thumb against the corpse's eyelid, rolling it back a little to examine the white of the eye. "Petechia," he commented, as he revealed the bloodshot eyes of the victim by stepping aside. "He was strangled. If his throat wasn't in that state, we might even see the bruising."

"I told you, you would learn a thing or two from my detective!" Lucifer mused.

Both officers looked at the devil with an expression of disbelief at his inappropriate tone, and then immediately looked at each other. Ramirez seemed to suddenly understand how much she needed his help, and Chloe was pleased to have finally found it. Two heads were better than one when facing Lucifer's childishness. On the other hand, three heads probably wouldn't be too many to try and make sense of this murder.


	10. Tell no soul 4

**Let there be Truth – Tell no soul 4**

Chloe played with the handle of her cup of tea, uneasy at the question she wanted to ask next. Lucifer had this weird sex appeal which seemed to work on nearly anyone that was remotely attracted to men, yet it didn't work on her. She couldn't deny he was charming, but not in the same way he immediately appealed to people's darkest desires. It was the way he cared about others despite his own carelessness. He didn't mind the consequences of his actions, but he still wanted to make people happy in his own way. That wasn't the sole source of his attractiveness, though, he looked nice.

"What about his appearance?" she asked.

"I'm sorry?" Egbert looked a bit surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've seen angels depicted as tall, blond men." But he really was dark-haired, and his so-called brother was black. Now that she thought about it, angel genetics had to be weird.

"Yes, I presume. You, much like everybody else in America, have been mostly subjected to European influences. On a continent where marble-like skin was considered to be a trait of beauty, it would be evident to depict them like that. The truth is that angels are not made of flesh and bones. They always seem to adopt a form that is pleasing to look at, but it isn't their own. Some say an angel's true form is too much for human eyes to behold. There are tales of people going blind after having a glimpse at such a thing."

"Or mad," Chloe added, thinking about what Lucifer had done to Barnes. The way he was convinced that he was the devil.

Egbert paused, apparently remembering something. "Yes, that's true." He smiled and glanced at the top of his shelf. "There is something Lovecraftian about heavenly creatures. Some angels have been described as having bodies of lions with several faces and an odd number of wings."

"But if they were here, on Earth, they would try to look human. Right?"

The Reverend nodded. "They would do their best not to disturb people with their appearance. Which means that they would look and sound like local people."

Chloe ticked at that last remark. Mazikeen and Amenadiel both sounded American, but Lucifer had a somewhat British accent, despite going straight to Los Angeles according to his own testimony. It didn't surprise her that much, though. He was the kind of man who would want to be set apart, and a lot of people found a British accent sexy.

The word clashed with her mind and she suddenly remembered him naked, a picture she didn't want to focus on, no matter how pleasing it might be. That might be why she asked her next question despite the questionable undertones it might have had. "Why would some angels be white and others black?"

The eyebrows of the Reverend rose on his forehead, but he didn't seem to judge her. Instead, he had another one of his benevolent look, and brought his hands together. "How do you picture Adam and Eve, Detective?"

She opened her mouth but not a word escaped. She did have a picture of two naked people standing near a tree, with an apple and a snake in mind. They were white with brown hair, and weren't too muscular, slim, or fat. Just average, in every aspect.

"As I said, our view of Christianity is largely influenced by Europe's Renaissance. When realistic interpretations were painted by great artists and became renowned, memorized, and plagiarized. But the truth is that the first Christians would look Middle Eastern to us, and the first humans… Well, Africa is known as the cradle of humanity, so we can imagine that they were black. It is most likely that Adam and Eve were as well."

Chloe didn't really understand how that would answer her question and the Reverend didn't seem to realize that, as he kept silent. "So…"

"If an angel had come to Earth in the infancy of the human race, it is most probable that they would have appeared as a black person. It is most likely that they would retain that form rather than taking a new one after that."

* * *

Chloe was almost ashamed to admit it, but she was worried about Lucifer. Soon after they inspected their latest crime scene, he had claimed he had something urgent to do at the club, and he had bailed on her and Ramirez. Nothing really out of the ordinary considering his usual tendencies, but he hadn't given her any sign of life ever since, and that was more than three days ago. Calling the Lux hadn't helped in the slightest and so she'd decided to go down there. If someone would know about his whereabouts, or any trouble with the club, it would be Maze.

She found the bartender slouching on a comfy chair, sharpening a nasty-looking knife with a whetstone. The sound made Chloe grit her teeth, but she didn't complain. She crosser her arms on top of the railing, staying on the stairs, and asked without coming any closer: "Your boss isn't home?"

"That's his workplace, not his home, and he isn't my boss," Maze flared, the knife rolling in her hand before suddenly stopping, its curved blade pointing at the detective.

It was enough of a threat to warrant an arrest, but Chloe didn't feel like trying to bring Maze in would do any good. No matter how dangerous the woman, she didn't think she would do her any harm – as long as Chloe didn't threaten her first.

"My point is, is he here?"

"No, why?" Maze met Chloe's eyes, intense as usual… Perhaps even more intense.

"I haven't seen him since the beginning of the week. He was supposed to help me with a case."

"That's weird," Maze said. "I haven't seen him either, I assumed he was too busy being your lap dog or something."

"Well, Lucifer might be a dog, but he doesn't sit on anybody's lap. You should know that." Chloe let out a sigh. "I guess he is half drunk and fully naked somewhere with a couple of models."

Maze sighed as well, "Sounds like he is having more fun than me." She put the knife on the table in front of her and tilted her head. "What's this case you're working on?"

Chloe would have wondered why she was interested if her tone didn't implicitly say, 'I'm bored, entertain me.'


End file.
